Two more home sales logged on Brazilian Avenue

Upscale townhouse, vintage house changed hands this month.

Add two more homes to the bulging list of those that have recently changed hands on Brazilian Avenue, the Midtown street that would be voted “most popular” if Palm Beach real estate was like high school.

Richard W. Wolfe has parted with his five-bedroom, Mediterranean-style oversized townhome — with its whopping 6,600 square feet of living space, inside and out — at 403 Brazilian for about $4.55 million, according to the deed recorded last week.Earl A. Hollis Inc.

Leanor Segal was listed on the deed as the sole buyer, and was represented by agent Bobby Goodnough of Linda A. Gary Real Estate Inc. Broker Christian Angle of Christian Angle Real Estate had asked $5.5 million for the townhouse, which is actually one-half of a ritzy three-story duplex built in 2003 in the lake block at the corner of Cocoanut Row.

Among its notable amenities is an “entertainment-sized” lanai overlooking a swimming pool with cascading waterfalls, according to Angle’s sales listing.

“I’ve been in a lot of townhomes in Palm Beach, and it was by far the nicest one available. It lives like a house,” Goodnough said, echoing Angle when he said he couldn’t comment about specifics of the deal.

On the opposite end of the street in the ocean block, a house designed by noted society architect Marion Sims Wyeth in 1926 — and today showing its age — at 149 Brazilian Ave. changed hands this month for a recorded $2.85 million. On Wednesday, the town’s Architectural Review Commission approved its demolition.

Agent Cristina Condon of Sotheby’s International Realty acted on behalf of the buyer, a revocable trust in the name of Mary Louise Campbell, who served as trustee, according to the deed.

Listing agent Julia Robinson of had last offered the house at $3.395 million, down from a high of $3.895 million, according to the Palm Beach Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. The house and its rear guesthouse, designed in the 1960s by architect Belford Shoumate, have a “total” of 3,124 square feet.

The seller was Plano, Texas-based Roger Kent Investments Inc., which went to court last month to evict Wayne Gerl and Susan Gerl, two longtime rental tenants, from the property in anticipation of the sale. The legal action ended once the tenants moved out on Sept. 30, said Jason Evans, the seller’s Palm Beach attorney.

Robinson’s sales listing had marketed the house as ripe for replacement, as it stands on an 18,000-square-foot lot that could accommodate a new residence of up to 7,800 square feet.

Since the spring, property records show that six other single-family houses and townhouses have sold on Brazilian Avenue, fetching prices ranging from $7.35 million for a five-bedroom residence to $2.8 million for a three-bedroom townhome.

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Architecture honored — Palm Beach architecture firms took two of nine awards presented at The Colony Saturday in the inaugural Mizner Medal Awards by the Florida chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. Neither of the two island projects honored was recent, as the nominations were open to any work completed within the last 10 years in Florida or the Caribbean.

Jeffery Smith of Smith Architectural Group accepted top honors in the “Civic — Institutional” category for the design of the Flagler Kenan Pavilion, which opened in 2005 at the Flagler Museum.

The renovation a decade ago of Il Palmetto — Netscape founder Jim Clark’s historic home on South Ocean Boulevard — won in the single-family estate category for renovations or additions. Anne Fairfax accepted the award on behalf of Fairfax & Sammons Architects, the project’s design architect; the architect of record was Bridges Marsh & Associates.

In all, 46 firms from across the country submitted work to the awards jury, composed of architectural historian and architect Elizabeth Meredith Dowling of Georgia, University of Miami School of Architecture Professor Richard John and Michael Lykoudis, dean of the Notre Dame School of Architecture.

The Florida chapter is affiliated with a national organization that promotes architecture, design and the fine arts, with membership open to professionals and the general public.

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New addition — Palm Beacher Lois Nitti-Verlen has joined the sales team at Tina Fanjul Associates.

After earning her law degree, Nitti-Verlen worked for 18 years with the international law firm of Paul Hastings, where she dealt with real estate matters. She spent many years in New York City and Westhampton Beach, N.Y., before moving to Palm Beach, where she recently completed a major renovation of her own home.

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